#19: Why Clients Leave: Human Behaviors Explained

Most founders don’t understand why clients leave.

Many focus on “How do I get more clients?”
But unless they understand why clients leave…
Their business is like a leaky bucket.
Clients will keep leaving.
Then they keep doubling down on marketing to get more clients.
So there’s cash flow to keep the business going.

Running this “acquisition hamster wheel” long term leads to burn out.
What if clients leaving unnecessarily is preventable?

If you really care for your clients…
If you consistently fulfill your promises and even overdeliver…
You deserve to know what I’m going to share with you.
Because losing clients unnecessarily affects the durability and sustainability of your business.

Let’s look deeper into the various reasons leading to client churn.

There are 3 principles most founders overlook:
1) Humans make decisions emotionally.
2) Trust + Meaning = Retention
3) No trust = No sale = No retention

1) Humans make decisions emotionally
What about logic?
People buy emotionally. Then they justify with logic.
This also means:
Even if you’ve all the data.
Even if you have proof showing the results you create for clients…
It doesn’t matter if you’ve not taken care of their feelings.
They’ll still leave.

Trust is a feeling.
Peace of mind is a feeling.  

Sense of belonging is a feeling.
They want to feel seen, heard, understood, valued, and respected. 

If clients don’t get that from you, they stay only because of utility.
Utility retention doesn’t create loyal clients and strong advocates for your business.
They leave whenever they find a better or cheaper alternative.
There’s no emotional investment in your business.  

If clients get those feelings from the relationship with you… They stay voluntarily.
Voluntary retention creates the strongest advocates and the most loyal clients.
They’re more likely to make referrals and purchase repeatedly from you.

That brings us to the next point…

2) Trust + Meaning = Retention

This doubles down on the first point.
As mentioned, trust is a feeling.
When clients feel seen, heard, understood, valued, and respected… It creates meaning in them.
It means they matter.
It means they’re significant.
It means you have their back.
They feel it’s worth their time, money, and energy to stay. 

If your product or service is deemed irrelevant to where they are in life…
They’ve lost the meaning of staying. 

They can’t justify continuing to pay you. 

People leave easily when it’s a transaction.
They don’t leave easily when it’s a deep relationship. 

3) No trust = No sale = No retention

In case you think you can just focus on either “Trust” or “Meaning”...
You can’t.
Both have to be present. 

Trust is the foundation behind the sale.
It’s the foundation for building relationships.
Even if there’s a strong meaning…
Clients will still leave when there’s no trust. 

Example:
You may find deep meaning to stay and contribute in the community.
But if you’ve lost trust in the leader of the community…
It’s highly likely you’ll leave. 

Misaligned expectations…
Disappointments…
Inconsistency and incongruence…
These are trust leaks.
They erode trust. 

Peace of mind erodes when trust erodes.
Clients can feel who is dependable, and who’s not.
They can feel who’s authentic or just putting on a performance to get more sales. 

They only stay where they feel safe. 

Now you’ve understood the root causes of why clients leave…
Stop chasing leads.
Start fixing the leaks.

- Herek